Thread of Fate
by ozzypoos
Summary: Everything was going well in the war for the Gundam pilots, until they got a mission to destroy one of OZ's main research facilities. A simple chain of events set in motion a new future for not only OZ and the Gundam pilots but for the rest of the world.


AC184

"Test subject 01A7 brain activity has increased a further 3"

Nodding his head to his assistant, a calculated look entered the scientists gaze as he walked away from the glass panel and over to the monitoring station "Inject subject 01A7 with 500 milligrams more of Z formula, then give me the readouts"

Adjusting the thin framed glasses, the assistant looked up briefly from his monitoring station, venomously objecting "We might end up killing 01A7 like all previous subjects if we inject that much into his system Mengsk!"

Spinning around as he leveled his assistant with a glare, Mengsk narrowed his eyes dangerously. He didn't enjoy being second guessed and he knew more than well enough what he was doing. "Are you questioning my orders Jefferson?"

"No but this has been the only subject to survive all the tests so far, to lose him now would ruin our experiment" Jefferson challenged his superior.

Slamming his clipboard down on the surfaced before him, professor Mengsk icily said "You needn't concern yourself with the subject's welfare Jefferson, as you said, he's survived all the tests so far and 01A7 will survive this one also. We are so close to finally finishing this program and I will have it delayed no longer because of what 'might' happen. Now inject the subject with 500 milligrams of Z formula, or are you incapable of carrying out my orders?"

Hesitating only for a moment, Jefferson reluctantly stood up from his station and walked into the lab area. Looking down at the cold metal table, graying brows knitted together in concern as he took in the subject's appearance.

Unseeing ocean blue eyes peered out from beneath the young child's shaggy brown hair. The child's skin was ghostly pale, almost translucent against the white sheet that covered his all too thin frame from his shoulders downwards.

Turning his attention away from the young boy's lifeless eye's, Jefferson picked up a syringe from the metal tray next to the table, along with a small bottle filled with a pale green liquid, so pale in fact that the liquid almost looked clear.

Pushing the tip of the needle past the bottle's rubber top, Jefferson hesitated only for a moment before he pushed down all of his emotions and began filling the syringe with the pale liquid. Pulling the needle clear of the bottle once it was full, the assistance held the container up before him, tapping the clear cylinder to make sure that there were no bubbles present. He had a job to do and nothing else mattered beyond that.

Moving around to the head of the metal table, the graying assistant positioned himself just beyond the child's head as he picked up a cloth and gently disinfected the small shaved area situated on top of 01A7's skull.

Placing the cloth back onto the tray, Jefferson then positioned the needle above the well used circular incision located on the child's head, gently pushing the tip into the incision before turning his attention to the screens above.

As the metal passed through the bone, Jefferson continued to insert the needle further until its tip penetrated the frontal lobe. As he injected the formula into the subject, the slight tensing of the body below didn't go unnoticed by the assistant.

'_This is where we find out if he'll survive.' _A light sheen of sweat glistened on Jefferson's brow as he carefully withdrew the syringe and expertly began to tend to the incision, all the while praying that the child would make it through yet another test session.

Cutting the last thread, Jefferson took one last glance down at the still overly tense body before making his way back to the monitoring station to report the new results.

Not taking his dark brown eyes off of the still tense figure on the table, Mengsk eagerly asked "Has there been any change yet?"

"Brain activity is increasing, 5 now 7, still continuing to increase. Brain activity has now increased 10" As the numbers still continued to rise, a hint of panic edged into Jefferson's voice as he continued "If it continues to rise up much more we could end up loosing him like all the others"

The small body jerked up suddenly as the subjects mouth opened wide in a silent scream, his lifeless blue eyes filled with nothing but pain. Though no sound was uttered from the boy, Mengsk and Jefferson covered their ears in a hopeless attempt to block out the screech as an ear piercing scream tore throughout their minds.

As the scream faded, Mengsk stumbled slightly disoriented, shaking his head clear, the professor returned his gaze back to 01A7 as the convulsing began to lessen "What's the level at now?"

Rubbing his face to focus his mind once more, Jefferson adjusted the glasses on his face "At 13 and holding, vital signs are stabilizing, heart rate decreasing, pressure dropping back to normal, brain activities now stable at 53"

A maniacal gleam entered Mengsk's dark brown eyes as he continued to watch the boy settle down from his earlier convulsions "Excellent, if our results continue on this way our project could be finished in as little as a week's time" Sighting the slight trail of blood dripping from the subjects nose, Mengsk's dark eyes narrowed in disgust as he barked out "Get 01A7 back to his room and clean him up, we'll continue with the final stages of the project tomorrow, perhaps we'll be able to get 01A7 up to 70" With his white lab coat billowing behind him, Mengsk left the lab. The subject was still far too frail if such a small seizure resulted in damage to the subject.

Jefferson waited until the professor left the lab area before moving over to where the trembling child lay, face caked with drying blood and saliva.

Reaching out a hand to brush the wild chocolate bangs from the child's face, Jefferson smiled down sadly at the boy as he quietly said "You did well today Heero, now why don't we get you clean up" He knew it was against everything giving such a test subject a name, marking it as something important and a form of emotional attachment none of the other subjects could come close to ever obtaining… yet there was something completely different about this one than all the other mindless drones. A difference which Jefferson was unable to get past as all too soon, he had found himself attached to this single subject.

As he placed his arms under Heero's knees and back, Prussian eyes focused onto his own green momentarily before becoming unfocused once again. Lifting the child up, Jefferson held the frail body to his chest protectively as he began to make the short journey out of the lab and too the child's allocated room four doors down.

Walking into the small bathroom, Jefferson carefully sat Heero on the stool within making sure he wouldn't fall, before dampening a cloth and running it over the child's face.

Frowning pensively while he worked Jefferson paused for a moment to look into Heero's lifeless eyes, before his gaze fell upon the now pink wash cloth in his hands.

Still frowning, the aging assistant sighed softly as he dropped the cloth to the floor and once again looked back into the child's dead eyes "A child should never have to go through this…." Searching intently for any type of reaction, Jefferson curiously asked "Would you like to leave here Heero?"

Glazed over Prussian eyes suddenly focused their attention on the man before him. Tilting his head to one side, Heero quietly responded "…leave..?"

Nodding his head to the child, Jefferson explained "To leave this place for a new one, to never have to go through any more tests… to live a normal life"

Sitting there quietly on the stool while he contemplated the information, Prussian eyes glazed over momentarily before focusing once again as he simply answered "Yes"

Down a seemingly endless metal hallway a solitary figure briskly made their way towards their destination. Stopping just before the thick gundaniam door at the far end, the professor dug his hand into his lab coat, pulling out a keycard from within. Inserting the plastic card into the control panel before him, a series of numbers were quickly keyed into the pad before a safety cover lifted up, revealing a flat black panel. Placing his right hand upon the scanner, a bright light scanned the area as the computer within checked their identity.

The red light above the thick door turned green as a computer animated voce sounded from the hidden speaker "Access granted, welcome back Professor Mengsk"

All down the long hallway echoed the sound of the thick gundanium doors as they slid open, allowing the professor entrance to the single room within.

Inside the rectangular room, on the wall directly opposite the entrance directly beneath an observation window, sat a control panel. Its many light flickered on and off as it monitored the room just beyond the glass. Walking up to the control station, the large door sliding shut behind him as the overhead lights flickered on. Running his fingertips gently over the active panel before flipping a switch, Mengsk looked down with pride into the room beyond the glass.

From each corner of the large room, four fluorescent lights buzzed to life, casting away the shadows to reveal the room's single occupant.

Covering the floor of the contained room, hundreds of tentacles type roots slid among themselves, slowly moving around as the tips of the roots came in contact with the gundanium wall. Set right in the middle of the room, its height almost touching the ceiling was a mass of muscle surrounded protectively with a claw shaped shell, obscuring what lay within.

Even though the entity showed no signs of knowing of his presence, Mengsk knew for a fact that the creature was more than well aware. Activating the microphone before him, the professor watched in curiosity as he spoke "The experiments are going well, subject 01A7 is showing great endurance to all of the tests we're putting him through"

At hearing those words the entire creature seemed to shake in something akin to furry as the tentacles all around the creature shot up from their place on the floor and hurled themselves towards the glass panel, crashing against the thick surface with a solid crack.

Not even flinching as the series of loud thuds echoed around the small room, Professor Mengsk calmly kept speaking as he watched the tentacles sliding across the barrier in an attempt to find some sort of weakness "The tests are going so well in fact, that in another week's time you will have your child back"

The tentacle type roots all stopped in union, dropping to the floor in a loud thud as the pink shell wrapped protectively around the entity parted to reveal a solitary eye moving around in every direction until it focused its gaze on the glass panel.

On the control panel below him, the screens connected to the creature within began to fill with a series of one's and zeros as a sound began to emanate from the entity.

While the computer could begin translating the message, the lights within the room turned red as an alarm sounded within the research centre. What little progress he made with his creation was lost as once again the eye disappeared behind its protective outer shell. He had been so close! Angered at the interruption, Mengsk slammed his fist down on the control panel before him as the screen flared to life, showing the face of one of the guards "What's going on?" Mengsk barked harshly, causing the guard to flinch slightly at his tone.

With sweat beading down his face, the guard looked uncertainly at the screen as he answered "Professor Mengsk sir, subject 01A7 has escaped and Professor Jefferson is also missing"

The room within seemed to drop five degrees at that statement as Mengsk silently stood there for a moment, rage flowing off him in thick waves. Forcing himself to remain calm, Mengsk evenly spoke "I want them found, 01A7 must be captured unharmed, I won't have this project ruined right when we're so close to finishing it because some old fool let his emotions get the better of him! If you find that traitor, don't bother bringing Jefferson back I want him killed on sight"

TBC

...has it really been a year that I've even touched on the GW fandom? -eyes widden- ZOMG! it's a fandom I honestly didn't think that I'd find myself returning to but my interest in GW has slowly began to come back after what? 2 years of it being depleted? -coughs- For any readers of my previous stories, the good news is that I have begun writing the next chapters of both 'Moments of Transition' and 'Between Darkness and Light' ...the bad news is that I'm not sure when updates will be around I'm in my last 2 months of study for the year and have a rather large amount of assignments due -coughs- I'll see what I can manage to pop out during that time and with some luck... perhaps there will be a chapter for each of those fanfictions. Although after re-reading this prologue I wrote 2 years ago... I can say my writing style has changed dramatically during that time and though I haven't made too many changes in the original written form of this one... (or the second half of the prologue) ...I can say that the writing style will change from chapter one onwards (including my other fanfics also)


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